To a streaking halt
Porcello, Sox finally drop game
Most of the blame can be heaped on the shoulders of starter Rick Porcello for a brief and less-than-stellar performance last night on the mound for the Red Sox.
Or maybe the Red Sox just refused to be greedy and extend their winning streak beyond 10 games.
The Blue Jays probably played a role, more so than Friday the 13th was behind it, but whatever the reason, the Red Sox lost for the first time since July 1 in the Bronx.
Toronto took some of the buzz out of Fenway Park with a 13-7 victory over the Red Sox, spoiling the fun for many of the 37,018 hoping to see the streak grow and win total reach 67 in just Game 96.
Since that ugly loss on a Sunday night to the Yankees, the Sox went on to sweep the Nationals in Washington and the Royals in Kansas City, then came home to sweep the Rangers and stretch the streak to 10 straight on Thursday against the Jays. Along the way, the Sox outscored opponents, 7730, a stretch of domination in which they ran up their run differential to plus-162 and pushed their lead over New York to 31⁄2 games in the AL East standings.
That lead stayed intact with the Yankees’ loss to the Indians last night, when it could have expanded if Porcello had not been off to such a startling degree.
Porcello allowed only a firstinning single and was handed to 1-0 lead to begin the second inning.
He walked the first batter, but that was no big deal. When he walked the next Toronto batter, that was a concern. Kevin Pillar doubled to level the score at 1-1. After a sacrifice fly and an RBI single, Porcello escaped further damage as the Sox trailed, 3-1.
“Just never got into a groove, walked four guys, can’t expect to have success when you put four guys on base, free passes and just couldn’t make pitches with those guys on base. I never found it. I don’t know what to say really, this one’s completely on me,” Porcello said. “Our team did a hell of a job putting up three runs after I put us in a deficit and I couldn’t hold it.”
For a Red Sox team averaging 5.39 runs a game, the deficit did not seem like much.
Toronto starter Ryan Borucki walked Sam Travis. Sandy Leon reached on an infield single. Jackie Bradley Jr. knocked in Travis with a single.
Betts hammered his second triple in two at-bats, bringing in two runs and lifting the Sox into a 4-3 lead. Brock Holt singled home Betts and an RBI single by Xander Bogaerts pushed the lead to 6-3.
A three-run lead is normally enough for Porcello.
Justin Smoak homered to lead off the third. After a walk and a single, Pillar doubled in two runs and the lead was gone.
After Dwight Smith Jr. hit a two-run blast to put Toronto up 8-6, manager Alex Cora had seen enough of Porcello.
“He was erratic. Four walks. That’s it. It wasn’t a good one. We know it, it’s going to happen, know they’re going to have one of those,” Cora said. “We turn the page. He’s going to get his turn the fourth game after the All-Star break. He’ll be OK.”
“He had a bad game, that’s it. There’s no look at the video, look at the pitch mix. He missed his spots and they took advantage of it.”
Porcello allowed eight runs, all earned, with four walks, two home runs, seven hits and just two strikeouts in his two-plus innings.
Hector Velazquez came in to clean up the mess and threw two clean innings. Tyler Thornburg threw a scoreless fifth and Ryan Brasier had a scoreless sixth and seventh.
The Red Sox managed a run off Borucki in the fourth on an RBI single from Mitch Moreland but their offense sputtered from there. They stranded three runners in the fourth, one in the fifth and went down in order in the sixth.
The Jays added three runs in the eighth inning before Smoak hit his second homer of the game for two more in the ninth.